As has often been reported, Scott Griffin, Canadian captain of industry and noted philanthropist, created The Griffin Trust for Excellence in Poetry after a dinner party, attended by Michael Ondaatje and David Young, during which the guests lamented the decline of poetry’s place in public consciousness. Determined to promote the art’s profile, the Griffin Trust launched the Griffin Poetry Prize in 2001, offering a large purse (the prize is now $50,000) to both a Canadian poet and an international poet. Eight years later, there are promising signs that the mission is making its mark here in Toronto.

“In our first set of readings, there were 175 to 200 people — and it was packed with friends,” says Griffin, addressing the project’s growth. “And for the past few years we’ve been at the MacMillan Theatre, which seats 850, and it’s been sold out 10 days ahead. That’s a lot of people to come and listen to poetry, so that’s been a success, seeing that Toronto wants to hear these poets.”

And indeed, the Griffins have become an annual highlight in Toronto’s literary calendar over the last nine years, not least because it is one of the few times major poets from outside Canada — like the influential American poet John Ashbery, who won the prize last year — come to town.

This year’s nominees (which, I must say, includes several personal favourites) are, in the Canadian camp, Kevin Connolly for Revolver (House of Anansi), Jeramy Dodds for his debut collection, Crabwise to the Hounds (Coach House), and A. F. Moritz for The Sentinel (House of Anansi); the international set features Scottish poet Mick Imlah for The Lost Leader (Faber and Faber), Irish poet Derek Mahon for Life on Earth (Gallery Press) and American poets C. D. Wright for her Rising, Falling, Hovering (Copper Canyon Press) and Dean Young for his Primitive Mentor (University of Pittsburgh Press). The whole mess of them read on June 2. It’s an impressive collection of talent and range of style, thanks to this year’s judges: Canadian poet, playwright and novelist Michael Redhill, American poet Saskia Hamilton and Irish poet Dennis O’Driscoll.

In addition to drawing big names, the prize has also spotlighted a number of poets who publish with small presses. Toronto’s storied Coach House Press, for example, have snagged five nominations and two wins (Christian Bök for Eunoia and Sylvia Legris for Nerve Squall). “The Griffin Prize is a tremendous boon to poetry — it puts the art in the spotlight, makes people listen to it, talk about it, read it,” says Alana Wilcox, senior editor at Coach House. “And, of course, it’s great for the poets — not only the prize money or the boost in sales, but for the recognition of the community they belong to and the validation that comes with that.”

The night after the readings is a large invite-only party — a beautiful gala on the scale that Stephen Harper notoriously suggested was common in the arts — where the winning poet is announced. It tends to be an intoxicating evening in more ways than one — Griffin jokes that their caterer insists he’s never seen any group put away more booze than poets — as it’s an unusual opportunity for Toronto poets and the people who love them to dress in their finest and place bets on who will win. Of course, glamour doesn’t please everybody — for all the goodwill and press it generates, it also inspires inevitable grumblings that the prize only benefits a chosen few. Bill Kennedy, artistic director of the Scream Literary Festival, sees both sides.

“The Griffins stand as a $50,000 anomaly, a chance for most poets to reflect on their essential obscurity and impoverishment even as seven of them are thrust into the spotlight for a year,” he says. “It’s difficult to assert that there’s been any lasting effect these past nine years, or that the social lot of poets has somehow improved…. That said, one can only muster up so much cynicism in the face of some truly great moments, from the ire raised by Christian Bök’s win for Eunoia, to the sheer oddity of Sylvia Legris’ nod, to a fabulous gala speech by the previous year’s winner August Kleinzahler, which is well worth looking up.” (Listen to the speech online at www.griffinpoetryprize.com/speeches.php?t=2.)

And to that end, Griffin is sensitive about wanting the future focus of the Trust to extend out to a larger audience. “[The prize] addresses the excellence of poetry,” says Griffin, “but we don’t want it to be just an event where people go back to sleep when it’s over.” He says they’re looking for ways to get more young people involved in an active way. “How do we get people reading, reciting or writing poetry? That’s the direction I want to go…. We have some ideas and hopefully in the next year we’ll come out and see if they fly or not.”